Out of Africa

[Nancy Bell]

I had a spectacular time in South Africa this past month. For 8 of the days I attended a photo workshop from ODP Safaris (now Tusk Photo) at Elephant Plains Lodge in the Sabi Sands area near Kruger. Our main focus was leopards and lions. And oh my, we found these awesome animals nearly every day. Here is one of my favorites, a leopard serenely sitting on a large termite mound. These animals are habituated to the safari vehicles and are not in the least disturbed by our presence. And of course, we never stepped outside the vehicles! I cropped this image for just a head portrait. Added a rice paper texture from On One Perfect Effects plus a layer from Topaz Impressions. Then some PS adjustments.

[Wendy Kates]

Nancy, this image is spectacular. Fabulous detail in the fur and the eyes...you really caught an expressive pose. The rich, warm colors of the background offset the leopard beautifully: did you mask the leopard when you applied the texture, or are the warm colors of the leopard partly due to the texture? And what lens did you use to capture this image? This is really a WOW image.

[Dennis Bishop]

I like this a lot. The colors in both the foreground and background are beautiful. And those eyes . . . You did a great job in both photographing and processing.

It's not that I'm suggesting you should've done this, but I had to try something. Last week, I read that, for at least 500 years, portrait artists have been placing one eye of their subject in the horizontal center of the image. This was incidentally discovered by a neurosurgeon who was preparing to do some research on vision and the two hemispheres of the brain. It's apparently been done unconsciously by the artists. (Check the portrait of Mona Lisa and of George Washington on the dollar bill.) Very few of my images include eyes, so I just thought it was interesting and went on. Well, your leopard gave me a chance to try it out. Intuitively, it goes against what we see (pun not intended) about not putting important features in the center, but it has a positive impact, I think.


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[Hazel Grant]

Hmmmm, Dennis. Interesting to find out the basic , often unintended, rules that control our perspectives. (May I philosophize to hint that there is an order to the universe???) Anyway, it is interesting how that small adjustment makes a difference. As you say, not that it needed any improvement. Wonderful pensive catch, Nancy. Texture of the fur is right on, also and contrasts well with the bkgd. Whiskers sharp. But the eyes say so much. Looking forward to more posts from your trip.

[Judy Howle]

Outstanding Nancy! One of the best leopard captures I've seen. I like Dennis' crop, it does seem to make a difference. Who would have thought?!

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you all so very much! Dennis, fascinating about the eye placement. She does now have that Mona Lisa look with the eye seemingly to follow you!
Wendy, I used the Canon 200-400 with the internal 1.4 @ 560mm. 1/250, f6.3, ISO 800, ext flash -1 compensation. This was taken at 5:30 pm so the lighting was warm. I totally removed the texture from the eyes, and reduced the opacity on the leopard. You can see areas of the fur are a bit softened from the texture, as well as the nose and cheeks.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy,

Greetings. You seem to be checking off my bucket list. ;-) Really, really, great image. While I like the, Mona Lisa thing (the full detail is that it must be the dominant eye in the center) I like the full shoulder in the photo as in the OP (maybe extending the left to center the eye would work). Perfect background with the contrasting brighter part against the darker part of the face. Losing the texture on the fur and face would be my preference.

Thanks for posting. Please post more.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[gary ellwein]

This is a gorgeous portrait. Thanks to Dennis for the eye info.. I'm with Michael relative to the complete shoulder.

[Kerry Perkins]

That's such a nice image Nancy! I think that little crop did make the eye more compelling, but wow what a great picture! I have always dreamed of making a trip like that.

[Anita Bower]

Gorgeous! Great portrait. Love the colors, the eyes, the intensity. Excellent work. I can't really tell much difference between the two versions.